Hosting Exeter on our family weekend, Deerfield came ready to play with good energy, fantastic team support, and strong effort to earn a 3-0 victory.
In the first set, Deerfield came out strong with good serving from Caroline Weller ‘23 that had Exeter calling an early timeout at 3-0. Deerfield continued to push and the excellent passing from Zoe Gavros ‘23 and Elle Stearns ‘23 allowed setter Daphne Gavros ‘22 to distribute the ball well. We worked this week on being smart and consistent with our hitting placement and it showed! Cate Shanahan ‘23 and Caroline Weller put the ball down effectively (and efficiently) from the outside. Meanwhile, Aoife Bruce ‘22 and Georgia Sackrey ‘23 found their spots in the middle to be able to hit (and tip) effectively from multiple hitting positions. Deerfield took the first set, 25-17.
The second set started tighter until Cate Shanahan got the serve at 5-3 and proceeded to go on a strong service run to take the score to 12-3. Continued strong passing and defense from Zoe Gavros and Elle Stearns, along with good hitting, provided the foundation for this set. Aoife Bruce went on a service run to take the score to 21-9 before Deerfield closed out the set, 25-11.
Tough, consistent serving was the theme for the third set as Caroline Weller went on a long service run to open the set and then followed by Aoife Bruce and Elle Stearns. Natalie Meyer ‘23 had been putting up excellent blocks all day and in the final set she also got to make a few good kills that brought big cheers from the whole team. Final score in the 3rd set was 25-4.
Particular shout-outs to Tessa Bracken ‘24 and Loran McGruder ‘24; they may be temporarily injured, but their commitment to the team has never wavered and their tracking of passing and hitting allowed us to be incredibly effective in our ball placement.
All 14 players plus two managers make matches like today possible. We practice each day against strong competition and it allows us to continually improve as a team.
Thank you to Exeter for making the long trip.
After a well-deserved long-weekend, Deerfield will prepare next week to host Andover on Saturday at 1pm. But first, look for our team supporting the next generation of players as we run our annual youth volleyball clinic this Tuesday.